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Monday, June 10, 2013

PQ & Péladeau Holding Back NHL Franchise in Quebec.

Bettman: Quebec's Worse Nightmare

For well nigh 40 years, successive Quebec governments, whether Liberal or Pequiste have played the nationalism card in order to extort money from the ROC in the finest tradition of a political blackmailer with a compromising sex tape in hand.Today we find ourselves in the extraordinary situation where the separatist government of Pauline Marois takes with one hand, sixteen billion dollars a year from Ottawa, while giving the finger to Canadians with the other.It's a fine and cynical act, like a radical student who spouts Marxism while living in the lap of luxury in his parents million dollar home, all the while threatening to leave.It's an understandably successful strategy, as Canadian politicians have indulged a petulant Quebec for decades, leaving the impression that the province can spit upon the rest of Canada with utter immunity and without consequences as successive federal governments cave in to the incessant financial demands of Quebec in a vain and impossible effort to buy its love.But in the private sector this nationalist strategy has not been so successful, actually far from it, where hundreds of thousands of individuals and thousands of companies have abandoned Quebec to the greener pastures of the ROC where they are respected and appreciated.Those who have left, have no doubt contributed to the economic decline that has seen Quebec cascade down from the powerhouse province it was forty years ago, to the beggar province that it is today, living on borrowed money and the largess of the very Canadians it so detests.But because this economic decline has been pasted over by successive Quebec governments with an ever-increasing debt bonanza coupled with financial aid of other wealthy provinces, ordinary Quebecers live with the fantasy that everything's just fine and dandy.

You know the old saying... Denial is not a river in Egypt.

And so while Quebecers blithely believe that all is hunky-dory and that Ottawa will indulge them forever, what they fail to understand is that ordinary Canadians have not and will not.

Here in Quebec, federalists and separatists live side by side out of necessity, each side making the necessary accommodation to live in peace.

Nobody else will say it in the mainstream press, so it befalls on me to say what few will admit out loud.Plain and simple, the majority of Canadians dislike or hate Quebec separatists, who are seen as despicable, disloyal, diabolical and dishonest.I can't be more blunt.

While the percentage of Quebecers who want to separate is going down, the number of Canadians who want Quebec to separate is going up and with the PQ shenanigans of late, that number is going to rise even higher.

I'm not bringing all this up to be cruel, but rather so nationalists reading this understand why Quebec City will never get an NHL franchise as long as the PQ is in power and Pierre-Karl Peladeau is involved with the franchise.

The NHL is an exclusive club and owners get to choose who gets in and who doesn't.To those who think that business is business and that financial considerations are all that counts, ask blackballed Jim Basillie how things really work in the NHL. There are almost a dozen billionaire owners in the NHL, the rest hundred millionaires and if you think that they'd hold their nose and vote for a separatist to join their club, you don't know much about the super rich. Many of these guys give tens of millions of dollars away each year in charity, so the idea that money is the motivating factor is utter delusion.The NHL board of govenors is a club comprised of rich, conservative and wildly patriotic Canadians and Americans, whose politics generally side on the Republican in the USA and Conservative side in Canada.Collectively, American NHL owners donated four times as much money to the Republican Party as compared to the Democrats.

If Bernard Drainville goes ahead with his plan to ban Jewish doctors from wearing a kippah to work, Regis Lebeaume may as well stop building the new arena, Quebec City will be permanently blackballed.

Among the generally ultra-conservative groups that is the NHL board of Governors, count eight Jewish members, including the chairman of the board. It takes just nine "No" votes to scuttle any expansion or relocation.

The iron-fisted president of the league, Gary Bettman enjoys absolute power after his devastatingly powerful win over the hockey players union in this year's lockout.What Gary wants, Gary gets from a grateful band of owners who rightfully see him as a savior.Bettman is, as you know Jewish and although he doesn't wear a kippah, his affinity to the tribe is solid and he is particularly sensitive to antisemitism.

"Bettman has confided that his discomfort is increased by the tinge of anti-Semitism that hovers in the strike rhetoric. Toronto columnists have referred to Bettman as 'nebbish' and complain the league is now run by 'New York lawyers,' and players have joked that Bettman's wife would rather 'go shopping' than watch a hockey game -- all of which can be construed as a code word for 'Jew' ...

Notwithstanding the dollars, if Bettman wants to keep a franchise out of Quebec he can do it himself, that is how much control he exercises.By the way, it was rumored that Bettman was meeting with the super federalist billionaire Demarais family last year, perhaps with an eye to putting together an alternative ownership group, but this was before the PQ got elected.Now with a separatist government, all bets are off.

It takes a two-thirds vote to grant an NHL franchise (not the 50% + one that Quebec is so fond of) and there isn't a chance in heck that in the present situation, that Quebec could muster the necessary votes.Aside from the eight Jews, there's a devout Christian, a fracking king, an Alberta Oil sands developer, and two proud Italians and three Greeks. The others are an assortment of tough guys, used to getting their own way.The only thing that all these governors have in common, is the English language. The Nordiques have absolutely nobody carrying the ball for them in the boardroom.Take a closer look at the Board of Govenors of the NHL, the ultimate body that will decide on any potential Quebec franchise. And by the way, if the Nordique Nation thinks that they have Geoff Molson's vote in their pocket, they couldn't be more wrong.The Montreal Canadiens owner may not be bright, but isn't so stupid as to carve up his own market. The closed door vote remains top secret, so how do you think he will really vote?

As long as now, out-of-the-closet separatist Pierre-Karl Péladeau is involved with the team and as long as the PQ keeps threatening minorities and religions, there isn't a chance in heck of them scoring a franchise.

The choice of separatist Péladeau as show-runner was so patently arrogant and stupid, it goes to the utter fantasy under which Quebec lives, whereby they honestly believe that Canadians (and Americans) outside Quebec will give them a fair shake.For those Quebecers who choose to ignore this unpleasant reality, just keep voting for the PQ and enjoy the Quebec Remparts.

And as the venerable Soup Nazi toldGeorg Costanza in Seinfeld, there's "No soup for you!"

224 comments:

Keep in mind that Pierre Peladeau, Pierre-Karl's father, despite his own separatist leanings, funded and started The Montreal Daily, the newspaper from the '80s and '90s that was virulently pro-federalist and totally committed to promoting on its pages that uniquely anglo institution called the Equality Party.

His son is, as I understand it, behind that pro-federalist, anti-separatist media enterprise called Sun News Network. Oh, and did I mention that this network engages in what many would describe as daily Quebec bashing?

I wonder how much one's political leanings are factored into decisions such as the one contemplated by the article. For the Peladeau's it obviously has not; it may be the same case for the NHL Board of Governors as well. Money trumps politics...and patriotism.

That's my suspicion, yes. Or he might just love money. Or it might be both. Who knows?

They say that the video of youths in the ROC stomping on a Quebec flag did more to create Yes votes in Quebec than anything. It's also the avowed strategy of Marois to antagonize the federal government. It's not as ludicrous as you might think.

We have our swastika fleur de lees ready to burn if you clowns ever call another referendum. We will burn many of them, piss on them, stomp on them...post them online...anything we can do to get rid of you French bigots, we will do it. You have no idea the hatred for you people outside of Quebec, no idea at all.

If Yannick’s suspicion is correct, that would be deliciously evil and duplicitous. However, I doubt that such Machiavellianism would actually work with unilingual, sheltered franco-Quebecers. Don’t you?

It's when the fence-sitters feel rejected by the ROC. After the "night of the long knives", the Meech Lake accord, the sponsorship scandal, etc... Perhaps you do not agree that those constitute rejection - you might be right. But the important thing is that it is interpreted as such by the Francophone media in Quebec.

Therefore, the best way to ratch up oui votes is to piss off ROCanadians. This explains much of the separatist strategy.

The biggest problem in Quebec are the unilingual anglo's. They commit more crimes by 9am simply by existing then all the criminals that get paraded in front of us all day at the Charbonneau commission.

It's important that the govt of Quebec focus on important issues like Bill 14 and charters of this and that.

PQ lunatics and trolls, I appeal to you directly. Please do not let Charbonneau commission defect media discussion from the real problem of anglo's in the province.

Bill 14 must be adopted. It's the most important issue facing Quebec society since the Cliche commission fixed stuff...

The funny (or sad) thing about this, from an over taxed Quebec-taxpayer perspective, is that the Quebecor Arena, which is under construction NEXT DOOR to the Pepsi Colisee is being funded by public funds. This "Field of Dreams, if you build it, they will come" philosophy is lacking in judgement and is probably the worst use of taxpayer money in Quebec since the Big Owe was built. The Liberals and the PQ are both to blame for Green-Lighting this project, which from the looks of it, will probably sit vacant most of the time.

If the PQ goes ahead with its ban on Kippahs, Turbans, skull caps, and head scarves...etc for public service workers, I strongly suggest that everyone in the public service wears one of these items in defiance to such an idiotic law and in solidarity with every targeted religious community. I swear I will wear either a turban, Kippah, or skull cap in defiance to such stupidity that is frankly dangerous and against everything that Canada stands for.

Thanks Laurie! Thanks Cat! I was just hiding from some of the trolls for a bit but now decided to come back. Truth be told, I've been spying on the posts from everyone for the past 2 weeks now and decided now was a good time to jump back in :)

"While the percentage of Quebecers who want to separate is going down, the number of Canadians who want Quebec to separate is going up and with the PQ shenanigans of late, that number is going to rise even higher."

True, Editor. I lived out west for 11 years, I've seen this trend and was even agreeing to it; quebec needs to get kicked out. Enough is enough. Thanks for speaking the truth. I suspect ED & Cutie will be both angry at you as they were with me whenever I raised that issue.Truth often hurts...Too funny that the redneck, uber con sunnews network is owned by a quebec separatist!!!

Again - I can't even begin to understand what un gars is talking about. I know the ROC wants us to leave and I never said differently and I was never "angry" about it - another outright lie. I've practically begged the ROC to understand the fix we are in and to not throw us out. Wow - the statements people make about what others say. What I've said about un gars is that he is a separatist that does not live here because he is promoting that Canada throw us out - that is a true statement - what else can he be called when he does this?

The above thread just put cutie in the same class as the two troll-separatists-12 year olds up above. student is a merely stirring the pot, while S.R. is alike a 20yo still living in his parents' basement, enjoying himself.

FROM EDGeoff Molson is a spoiled rich kid who got his degrees at third rate private schools in New York And Mass. where his Father bought him a degree. In spite of Dave Santi's snarky remark, he has never showed any thing that would prove his genius. Ed

And when I brought this up before people were angry with me. What happens to the Montreal Canadiens if quebec separates? What makes everyone think that this same group will approve the entrance of the Canadiens back into the league any more than the new quebec team? As I said before, perhaps they will play against each other for a PQ cup - they think there will be no backlash from the ROC and the US when they leave Canada, but they're in for a rude awakening. People have long memories and all will not be forgiven for many, many years to come and they will get even with them in many ways. Hockey will be just one of thse ways.

Cutie, the Montreal Canadiens will play on if Quebec separates, just like they have for the last 104 years, unless suddenly people can't afford to go to games and TV revenues cease. Hockey is hockey. Certain businesses, like the dairy industry, will suffer big-time if Quebec separates, but anybody who deals with the RoC and the U.S. should be fine. Multinationals will likely pull out their regional offices, and that will hurt, but that's been going on for decades. Ask former workers at the Shell refinery and Electrolux workers.

What would really hurt Quebec is the loss of federal money, even if Quebec raised its taxes to the combined federal and Quebec tax rates. Good-bye equalization and other federal largesse. Tough luck.

To respond to the Quebec Soccer Association: "Let them find federal money in their own back yards."

While it’s true that much Quebec-related commentary in the Canadian press features much anti-Quebec sentiment, Quebec ethnic nationalists evidently rarely, if ever, give pause to consider why such a situation might possibly be the case.

The knee-jerk reaction, of course, is to exclaim how everyone is engaged in “Quebec-bashing”. I wonder, however, if the ethnic nationalists are able to press the “Pause” button on their natural tendency to assume this and actually attempt to genuinely reflect seriously on why this might possibly be the case.

Are they capable of putting themselves in the “other’s” shoes for a moment? How would they feel if their “nation” had bent over backwards for them far more than most in the history of the world to address whatever issues concerned them, only to be consistently rebuffed? How would they feel if their “nation” kept shovelling billions of dollars at them to help them out every year, regardless of their contempt, only to have this simple, observable fact, far from being appreciated, but actually recanted as being some sort of fiction?

When was the last time that the ethnic nationalists ever made an overture to find an accommodation that could possibly suit them? Never, because they don’t want one. They do everything possible to antagonize everybody else and then they feign shock and horror when everyone reacts precisely as expected.

René Lévesque’s PQ had no intention whatsoever under any circumstances to agree to the patriation of the Canadian Constitution from London to Ottawa, regardless of any concessions that might conceivably have been offered, simply out of separatist principle. Therefore, it was perfectly natural for us to soldier on regardless, and it is Lévesque’s fault for having chosen to set Quebec upon this damaging path in its history.

But then, irony of ironies, Quebec ethnic nationalists chose to borrow terminology from Nazi history by explicitly associating themselves with the real “Night of the Long Knives” because it played perfectly well into their desired perception of perpetual victimhood. Hypocritically, they now turn around to deny any comparisons with such an abhorrent regime.

Enough is enough. Assez, c’est assez. When a minority has repeatedly demonstrated that it is not interested in any sort of reasonable accommodation, then there is no reason to attempt to accommodate them anymore. Claiming “national” recognition based upon the accidental demographics of provincial borders that were determined by Confederation is completely farcical.

Quebec doesn’t deserve to be kicked out of Confederation, but the minority ethnic nationalists deserve to finally be told in unequivocal terms that it’s time to put an end to this charade. We Quebecers have repeatedly demonstrated that we do not want what they want.

All true RS - our problem is not having a provincial government to represent that stance. We desperately need a hard-nosed provincial party that will stop giving any credence to the separatists whatsoever. Nothing that has been given to them has ever been appreciated and, as a matter of fact, has turned this movement into something that a lot of the population feels is justified and due to them. No one in our provincial or federal system has spoken out against these crazy political manipulations that these separatists hoist on us daily. We need a politician that can point out the fallacies of their whole movement and do it with conviction. Makes me wonder why no one is able to do this - doesn't make sense to me.

student:why do you use the term "mate"?You must be kidding, as a separatist, certainly.Well you are ill advised as outside your serfdom, Quebec that term was last in vogue 20 years ago. I know you are not British either.This just labels you as ineloquently construed, dude.Maybe you'd like to work for the french radio-Canada along with Nadeau-Dubois; just pretent you are a pretentious plateau citizen like Jean Barbe. You types all strive in a high degree of cynicism towards genuine people:)

guys denying the legitimacy of a quest for freedom will not lead you anywhere. you'll have to find another flank to attack what is after all a very noble and natural current. all nations over mankind's history have always seeked freedom. nobody whit a bit of self respect has ever felt at ease when someone from another culture levied a tax and imposed decisions on him. and here you are claiming the french canadian breed of independance is to be buried. that it shouldn't exist. it was good for americans, mexicans, brasilians, indians, but not for french canadians. this contradiction proves you are full of shit.

i'm not hoping you guys to vote yes. not yet. but i'm hoping you can admit the separatist's cause is legit.

What’s with this talk about “Freedom” and a “Subdued nation”? We Quebecers are among the freest and least subdued people who live on the face of the Earth and who have ever lived in the history of mankind!

We Quebecers joined Confederation of our own free will; we have special status and historically we have been over-represented in government; unlike most countries of the world (notably France), we have been freely consulted on our desires to stay or leave and we have repeatedly rejected the option that YOU happen to favour.

It’s your own bloody fault for having chosen to buy into the PQ mythology of “subdued nation” and perpetual victimhood. This does not make it true.

Entirely right R.S. - how is the nation subdued when it has had the opportunity to separate twice, and twice rejected it?

The problem is that separatism cannot convince its own target (Francophone Quebecers) so they make up all this nonsense about oppression, and have to try and pull a fast one with the perfect storm of weird referendum question, emotional backlash from ROC, and nationalist appeal.

And even then the best they could come up with was 49.6%. We're not talking about a nation unanimously wanting independence being placed in bondage by foreign troops or anything.

dude quebec is a provinc of canada. that it is subdued to canada is not a myth, it's a definition.

that quebeckers enjoy a better deal of freedom than other nations in the history of mankind doesn't delegetimate its will for the whole shebang.

of course two referendums were lost, so what? you put a lot of emphasis on this, even though it's pointless. if i believe the no voters were wrong, why would i stop trying to reason them in?!?

these poor sobs are convinced they couldn't make it on their own. afraid of themselves. they think they're poor, can you believe that? of course these people could be woken up. of course it's possible that they realize they have plenty of resources under their feet and in their heads. why the hell would a separatist call it quits in that context, mate?!?

Meanwhile, what about the basic freedom of expression to post signs in English? What the basic freedom of parental choice in education as declared in Article 26 (3) of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights?

How strange that we never hear the scholar argue in favour of the legitimacy and importance of THOSE freedoms. Completely hypocritical even, some might say…

Freedom of expression/speech does not concern commercial advertisements; it is the right to express your opinions and ideas without repression by the government. Televisions and newspapers and such. Closely related is freedom of association - to be able to form groups and clubs and discuss ideas without fear of repression.

In contrast commercial advertisements are regulated and you can't say anything you want; it is not freedom of expression that is concerned, but rather consumer rights - you have an obligation to be truthful, and you can be found liable if you misrepresent an offer or a product.

Documentation on the product should be complete and clear - and that implies that it should be in a language that is spoken in the country. In Canada that is English and French.

You would have a point, however, if you were trying to say that the OQLF in enforcing Bill 101, tries its best to suppress English and other Languages where it is found, and does not merely ensure that signage, documentation and advertisements include French.

Likewise, the declaration of human rights by the UN does indeed say that Parents have the right to choose education for their children - but what does that mean in practice? There isn't a single place on earth which offers public schools in another language than the local language to non-minority children. Why should Quebec fuel its own assimilation by enrolling its immigrants into English schools?

Just like parents who want their children to receive a religious education, parents who want their children to be educated in English are free to do so at a private school.

True, so remove the words “of expression” then. You still get the gist: it’s incoherent to claim that a free society isn’t free and to want more, more, more and still more freedom because there’s never enough of it, on the one hand, and then support placing severe restrictions on freedom when it suits you, on the other.

Also, the UN Declaration of Human Rights doesn’t state that parental choice is fundamental right* (*except in Quebec, because they fear assimilation, even though this still hasn’t happened after 400 years of existence).

Don’t forget that Quebec’s education system, which is funded by ALL Quebec taxpayers, is not just about French-language acquisition; some people, like Education Minister Marie Malavoy and Mathieu Bock-Côté, for example, explicitly want to manipulate the education system for partisan purposes and indoctrinate children with their own grievances, turning French schools into separatist factories.

I hope Quebec never gets an NHL team again. I hope people let the NHL know how racist, how bigoted Quebec or more specifically the french really are.

These people are the most racist, bigoted, corrupt, xenophobic people in all of North America. If the world only knew what was going on in Canada, what the French were really up to…along with the racist anti-English language laws in Quebec a la bills 22, 178, 101…they have bragged about taking all of Canada and everything seems to be going as planned…”first Quebec, then the rest of the country…one step at a time…” PET, “how to take over a country through bilingualism…” SD

Quebec has been robbing Canada blind for decades now. Since Trudeau and his gang of bigots from Quebec arrived in Ottawa in the 1960’s, they have been funnelling billions upon billions into Quebec every year…an absolute disgrace. And how do they say thanks in french? Well try decades of anti-English language laws like bills 22, 178, 101…nice eh?

1. The hidden agenda of the Parti Québecois (PQ) consists of deterring bilingualism in Quebec.Check.

2. The PQ is brandishing an anti-Anglophone rhetoric vis-à-vis bilingual towns and municipalities.Yup.

3. The xenophobic speech of a select handful of Quebeckers is reflected in Quebec’s public policy.Sounds about right, eh Mario Beaulieu?

4. Quebec should adopt an alternative policy consisting of promoting French language and culture, imposing the presence of French in the public sphere and encouraging the implementation of state-subsidized French language courses. This one gets all the separatists confused. "Promote french instead of trying to get rid of other languages and cultures? What a strange concept."

Quebec deserves every bit of "bashing" they get. Hope more and more of the world are made aware of the xenophobic, racist, mentally disturbed collective of separatist quebec society. They will be ignored more and more by the free world and will live in more and more isolation as time goes on. They have brought this down on their own heads and, should they ever gain the independence they so desire, they will be at such a disadvantage when it comes to negotiations with the ROC and/or the US, that the cost of living here will skyrocket and they will go broke even faster. Fools, the lot of them. Partition this place and let those areas leave that want to go - I want out of quebec! Embarrassed to be an unwitting participant in this society.

Considering you say you're new to this blog, I will repeat, there are many, many of us that are here because this is our home and circumstances do not permit us all to leave. If leaving was practical there would be no anglophones left here at all. We resent being pushed from our homes by these language bigots (separatists) so we have no option but to fight back as best we can. Forcing No votes out of the province is their end game at all times - we do not need outsiders to help them in their cause, thank you. Many of us want this province to be partitioned fairly and let those separatists have a piece of quebec in which to make their own country and let the rest of us live in peace and harmony again. Democratic votes to let those areas leave that want out of Canada - that's what a lot of us want and need to settle this long-standing dispute over territory.

This one gets all the separatists confused. "Promote French instead of trying to get rid of other languages and cultures? What a strange concept."

Thank you so much for this. This is precisely the Achilles' heel of the minority Quebec ethnic nationalist mentality, which is the reason why they have been failing for so many decades now in achieving their goal, and which the majority of Quebecers have consistently been rejecting over and over, time and again.

This is something so extremely obvious to everyone else and yet so difficult to comprehend for Quebec’s ethnic nationalists, as is repeatedly evidenced by the sad stubbornness that they show on this blog.

Quebec is my home, as it has been for my ancestors for at least eight generations now. Insecure separatists, and most especially supreme idiots like S.R, are never going to make me move anywhere else. If anything, imports like that make me more determined than ever by their sheer idiocy to preserve our presence here in Quebec, exactly the same as francophones elsewhere in our country feel compelled to do.

I know that Ontario and B.C. are perfectly fine and wonderful places, but they are not home and no one has the right to steal that away from me.

R.S. - the demographics at the time of confederation are anything but accidental. Upper Canada was divided administratively from Lower Canada precisely to give Loyalists a colony where they would be the majority, confining the Canadiens to Lower Canada.

Then there was the Durham report which sought to assimilate the Lower Canadians by unifying both provinces under United Canada.

This created an ungovernable colony, since the legislature usually needed a majority in both provinces to get anything done, with two Co-Premiers acting at the same time, each in their own province, and alternating the premiership of the overall colony. Examples include the Baldwin/Lafontaine premiership, and perhaps the much more important MacDonald/Cartier premiership, as the latter would prove to be the two main engineers of the Canadian constitution/confederation.

The political situation frustrated both Francophones and Anglophones, leading to the infamous burning of the parliament in Montreal by Anglo-Monteralers in 1849.

It was to get away from this untenable political situation that Confederation was done in the first place. To separate from one another, Quebec and Ontario needed to add more provinces and create something bigger.

I know that you are well aware that the borders of Lower Canada and the initial province of Quebec at the time of Confederation were very different back in those days. As I also know you are aware, today’s present borders exist solely because they were assigned to it as a province within the Confederation, and certainly not as part of this so-called “nation” which has been mythologized by the PQ as being a “subdued nation” (and so on and so forth).

Today, Quebec’s ethnic nationalists are seeking to lay claim to the entirety of the current borders of the province as belonging to them, while completely ignoring the existence of all the other nations that exist within those borders. That is what I actually meant by the “accidental” current borders of province which some people wish to claim as consisting their desired future “nation”.

If Quebec’s ethnically-franco nationalists wish to lay claim to a nation while completely neglecting the remainder of our country’s ethnically-franco population, not to mention Quebec’s own native and other non-ethnically-franco population, the whole thing turns into one gigantic mess. There is no reason at all why Quebec’s currents borders should suddenly be considered part of this ethnic nationalist project that some people dream about, except by sheer megalomania.

The borders of Quebec as it exists today are pure happenstance and most certainly do not consist those of a “nation”.

James Wolfe - Those videos are just pure propoganda. Talk about manipulating numbers. The one video focuses on the percentage of Canadians who speak french only which of course is very small outside of Quebec. Then the author uses this to argue that there is no point in having bilingualism. The reality is that the vast majority of francophones in the rest of Canada are bilingual because they have no choice hence they fall in the french and english category. So the video is grossly underestimating the number of francophones in the rest of Canada. 33 percent of people in New Brunswick are bilingual..the vast majority of those being francophone..11 percent in Ontario. So there are a lot more francophones out there than this video leads one to believe. On top of it the whole reason so many francophones are bilingual is because they never had proper servcies in their lnaguage outside of canada..they couldnt work easily in french so they HAD to learn english. If we were truly a bilingual coountry in the first place as the author claims then why would so many francophones be forced to learn english..

The author then goes on and on about how anglophones cant work for the government because of the bilingual requirements. Since when are anglophones incapable of learning french?? How come its expected that all francophones be bilingual yet anglophones are almost expected to remain unilingual? There are french immersion schools all across this country..any anglophone with a bit of motivation can become bilingual if they really want those bilingual federal service jobs.

The videos imply that Quebec is not bilingual and one cannot get any service in english in Quebec. Really - I live in Montreal and use english every day in stores, businesses. I can even call the Quebec government and be served in english and get forms in english. I may need to request service in english but I always get it. There are two major english universities in a city with maybe 800,000 anglos..there are english cegeps, they are even building an english super hospital!!! There are english tv stations, english radio stations, etc. So again more propoganda to imply that you will never be served in english in quebec..some parts of quebec this is true but certainly not in areas like Montreal and other parts of southern Quebec. Maybe the author should follow some francophones around in the Prairies or most of the rest of Canada and see how often a francophone is served in this supposedly bilingual country that the author repeats over and over.

Then the author shows pictures of store signs and even a street sign in Embrun Ontario that are in french only..omg!!! As if this is some sort of travesty that a business in a mainly franco-ontarian community has signs only in french. I see signs in english all the time in quebec..such as gap, toys r us, walmart, canadian tire, starbucks, body shop, apple, and on and on and on. I see tons of street signs with english words..such as broadview, maclean, stonecrest, silverbirch, wilson - oh mon dieu!!!But yes its true that english normally has to be smaller but many companies avoid this somehow.

So once again an incredibly biased and unfair set of videos with half-truths or statements filtered through the eyes of an angryphone.

Complicated - to the angry, british united empire-loyalist throwbacks like Wolfe above, all bilingual francophones count as anglophones; services in French are not something to which we are entitled as citizens and taxpayers living in French communities, but a crutch for the elderly and the imbeciles, to be bourne until future generations can be better educated (i.e. bilingual/assimilated).

Yes but I think the percentage of francophones in the federal public service is quite a bit higher than their share of the population. So its a policy that tends to help francophones because francophones are much more likely to be bilingual. They are most likely to be bilingual because they have no choice in most cases which indirectly helps them. I do think though there is an argument to be made that the bilingualization of the federal public service is becoming overdone..there are so many parts of the country that have a very small francophone population hence requiring some positions to be bilingual in these regions is overkill.

There is absolutely no logic that dictates that the federal service should mirror demographics. If it did, we would have 67% of English-only workers, 18% of bilingual workers, 12% of French only workers, and a 3% of poor suckers knowing neither English nor French and who would need to be fired as soon as they had the misfortune of learning one of our two languages.

Such a situation would be stupid - there would be too many unilingual French people, not enough bilingual people, it wouldn't be related to the work that needs doing in any way.

In many cases, having bilingual workers allows greater efficiency than if you had two offices, one French one English. For instance consider a call centre - it is better to have, say, 50% bilingual 50% English-only than to have 75% English-only and 25% French-only, because the bilingual can answer either kinds of call, while still having lots of English people because the majority of calls will require English.

In any case, 50% of jobs are English-essential, 39% are Bilingual-essential, and only 4% are French-essential. Unilingual anglophones still have access to one half of all jobs and still find room to complain. Try being a unilingual Francophone, eh?

In terms of actual employability, Anglos make for 68% of the workforce and Francos make 32% of the workforce. It is true, Francos are a bit overrepresented, but by no means do they form the majority of the workforce - there's more than two Anglos for every Franco!

"hence requiring some positions to be bilingual in these regions is overkill."

The only region of the country where that is true is West Canada where the % of bilingual jobs is 5%. These jobs are wholly front-staff and managerial positions; the former because at any airport or customs office you should have one out of all workers who can accommodate a francophone, and the latter because federal managers often need to deal with organizations in other provinces which may operate in French.

That is - in principle. In practice, try getting them to find the 1 out of 20 workers that is bilingual when you go to the airport. Good luck!

I dont think anyone was suggesting they are anywhere near the majority of the workforce but they are, as you note, slightly overrepresentednad this overrepresentation is increasing. I wouldn't worry too much about unilingual francophones as many of them are employed by the Quebec government and or municipalities in Quebec. Good luck for even a bilingual anglophone to get a job in the Quebec government. I saw some other interesting numbers..the number of federal workers per province..although it was from 2006. http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/11-621-m/2008066/t/4054486-eng.htm

I was surprised to see so few in Saskachewan, Alberta and BC..per capita they are much lower than any other province. Nova Scotia on the other hand has almost three times the federal government workers than Saskatchewan with a slightly smaller population. Another example of how eastern Canada is disproportionately represented by the federal government. Quebec and Ontario have many but a big chunk of them are likely in the National capital region. So are there more federal workers in Atlantic Canada because of chronic high unemployment hence the government tried to create some jobs there. But then why so little help for Saskatchewan which until the last 10 years or so was struggling a lot with low agricultural prices.

Quebec's government practices have nothing to do with the OLA. That said, I agree with you, it just isn't relevant.

There is no requirement to have federal workers spaced out equally. Federal workers are people who work for national tourism offices, national parks, large ports and international airports, customs offices, and where headquarters for certain services are. For instance the Mint is in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Nova Scotia has this country's largest port and houses our eastern fleet - I'm not surprised there is comparatively more workers there than elsewhere.

To French and English Quebecers alike, the strict provincial language laws designed to preserve French culture have become a familiar and more-or-less accepted part of public life. Under Bill 101, the charter currently defining Quebec’s linguistic policy, French has been declared the sole official language of government (for both internal and external communications), and the dominant language of commerce.

By default, employees must conduct all customer service in French. Business signs must feature French in a “markedly predominant” fashion; new commercial establishments must have a French name (with some exceptions); and the written French within a place of business must feature rigid translations – even in the case of traditional or ethnic words.

As no legislation is effective without appropriate enforcement, the Office Québécois de la Langue Française (QQLF), known to Anglophones as the “language police,” has been charged with enforcing the lingual priorities of la belle province. Armed not with batons but with fines and measuring tape, the QQLF’s most visible and controversial recent activities have been largely confined to the regulation of business’ signs and menus.

This year’s major uproar, dubbed “Pastagate” by the Canadian media, occurred when the QQLF reprimanded a Montreal Italian restaurant for leaving words such as “pasta” and “antipasto” without French translation. Fortunately, citizens on both sides of the linguistic spectrum decried this censure, eventually leading to the resignation of the head of the QQLF in March.

This points to an important lesson in Quebec politics: Cultural sensibilities are certainly very important to the majority French-Canadian population of Quebec, as last year’s election of a Parti Québécois (Quebec’s traditionally separatist party) government shows. However, there are costs to defending French language and culture, which Quebec nationalists must (and do) realize.

Quebec’s culture is admirably unique and appreciated by francophones all over the world. As such, its preservation is emphatically important. However, the often radical approach taken by the language police has fostered a significant degree of social disunity and economic uncertainty. Rigorous regulations make it harder for businesses to expand into the province, costing Quebecers valuable jobs.

Canadians from different provinces have, to varying degrees, begun to cultivate impressions of French-Quebecers as being xenophobic, discriminatory, and unreasonable. While some language regulations have very tangible, beneficial effects towards the preservation of French-Canadian culture, others have very little apparent benefit at great cost, financial and otherwise.

In the wake of the pasta scandal, many notable figures, including the Quebec French Language Minister Diane de Courcy, have made recommendations of moderation for the provincial language policy. Hopefully these will be heeded by the Parti Quebecois, who are currently trying to pass far more uncompromising cultural policies known collectively as “Bill 14.”

English-speaking Quebecers have made boundless contributions to the province since its historical beginnings; it is not right to persecute them for their traditional linguistic preference. Instead of encouraging what could turn into a politically motivated witch hunt, the Quebec government could offer more subsidized French lessons, or allow each township to decide for themselves. If the pro-French movement wants to gain true legitimacy, it must make sure a message of tolerance, constructiveness, and common sense is conveyed.

Max Honigmann, a second year Political Science student at McGill University in Montreal, is a research intern at Sharnoff’s Global Views. Max is especially interested in civil liberties, intelligence, and international relations-related issues. Follow him on Twitter @maxhonigmann.

Please add Max to your Twitter feed if you think what he says makes sense to you.

MONTREAL — You know the Quebec sovereignty movement is really having internal problems when even a sovereignist-unity movement splits.

On Saturday, the president of the sovereignist Nouveau mouvement pour le Québec resigned, after a delegation from his movement refused to follow his lead and walk out of a meeting of sovereignist organizations. This was two weeks after the NMQ held a “national convergence convention” that failed to get the three sovereignist parties at the provincial level to work together for the good of the cause.

In a long open letter on his Facebook page announcing his resignation, Jocelyn Desjardins described the sovereignty movement as “dysfunctional” and blamed jealousies among the sovereignist parties. Desjardins had walked out of a meeting of the Conseil de la souveraineté du Québec because, he said, that umbrella group of sovereignist organizations is controlled by the political parties that fund it.

And while he complained in his resignation letter that sovereignists tend to be “ungrateful” to their leaders, he called on Premier Pauline Marois, without naming her, to step down as head of the Parti Québécois. “Certain political leaders,” Desjardins said, should “allow our national ambitions to come before their personal ambition — which has already been achieved.”

That was a clear reference to Marois having become Quebec’s first female premier. Desjardins founded the NMQ in 2011, during a crisis in the sovereignty movement over Marois’s leadership and her suspected lack of commitment to sovereignty. There’s nothing new, of course, about sovereignists resigning and criticizing their leaders. Jocelyn Desjardins is hardly a household name in Quebec, and it’s hardly likely that the premier will step down because he said she should.

Still, his resignation draws attention to the divisions for which the sovereignty movement has come to stand. Not only have sovereignists divided Quebecers in two referendums and would do so in a third if they could, but they also have often been divided among themselves. And not since the late 1960s, when PQ founder René Lévesque united sovereignists behind his new party, has the movement been as deeply divided as it is now.

For nearly 40 years after the PQ’s first election in 1970, sovereignists either voted for the PQ, or they stayed home.That began to change, however, in the 2007 election, with the entry of the Québec solidaire party, which is primarily left-wing but also pro-sovereignty. In 2008, QS elected its first member of the National Assembly, Amir Khadir, in the Montreal riding of Mercier, which had voted PQ in every previous general election since 1976.

The Solidaires won a second seat last September, while boosting their vote share to 6 per cent. That was enough, some Péquistes believe, to deny their party a majority in the Assembly. Since the election, the PQ has continued to lose support to other sovereignist parties, not only QS but also Option nationale, which was founded by former PQ MNA Jean-Martin Aussant after the PQ’s 2011 crisis.

In one poll last month, by Léger Marketing for Le Journal de Montréal, 27 per cent of voters expressing a preference chose the PQ, down from 32 per cent in the election. The survey gave 11 per cent of the vote to the Solidaires and 4 per cent to ON.

And the PQ inadvertently helped its sovereignist rivals by having the Assembly pass legislation increasing the public subsidy to parties based on how many votes they receive in the previous general election. That gives the smaller parties an incentive to run full slates of candidates, instead of conceding ridings to each other in an alliance like the one for which Desjardins and his movement hoped.

that would be because the only common objctiv thy have is qubec's independance. that leaves many many things to argue about from left to right. it's to be expected that the pq struggles to keep everybody together don't you agree?

I think it makes perfect sense that separatists don't get along with others or even themselves. They are all about division, being different, and not compromising.

I also think it is a great thing that there are several options for separatists: Quebec solidaire for the communist separatists, Option Nationale for impatient separatists, and the PQ for the regualar franco-supremacists.

In fact, I think there should be 4, 5, or 6 different options for separatists. The more the merrier!

Is it my imagination, or does it seem that more Montrealers (or Montréalais) are more concerned about the prospect of getting an NHL franchise for a city 250 odd kilometres away than getting another MLB team to replace the Expos? Or is it that my lens is distorted because this is just what Quebec provincial politicians keep talking about rather than sports fans in Montreal?

Well, there’s no talk whatsoever these days about getting another MLB team for Montreal. No one here really cares about whether or not Quebec City eventually gets an NHL franchise either, so personally, I’d say that your lens has been distorted by political talk…

This is kind of a petty piece by the editor. First of all most people can't stand Bettman - he is a bully who knows next to nothing about hockey and who has made many awful decisions during his tenure. His grand expansion to places like Columbuus, Nashville, Florida were poorly thought out and we now see how dumb these decisions were. You are probably right about him denying the Nordiques a team but in the end you almost sound gleeful about the fact that Bettman and a bunch of overpaid businessman are going to punish Quebec. In the end this is a pretty minor issue..I doubt that too many Quebecois are going to lose sleep if the Nordiques dont get a team..they have lived without one for 15 years now..so whats another 10 or so.

You, like so many North Americans love to glorify these greedy overpaid "businessman" who often got their vast riches by trampling over people, breaking the law, bribing people, exploitation, blackmailing governments to extract tax breaks and so on. I dont know whats worse sometimes..governments that are incredibly inefficient and bloated like here in Quebec or many rich businessman who break almost every rule in the book to get to where they are. The worse combination is when the two groups work hand in hand.

Complicated, I totally share your sentiment about people like Bettman, but at the same time I can't condemn those who would like to punish Quebec.

As much as I try to side with regular folks against big business gangsters, I have to admit that it's not always easy. So many regular folks in this province are infected with supremacist ideology that it makes sympathizing with them hard sometimes. It's not going to make me embrace Bettman and his gang on the principle that my "enemy's enemy is my friend", but it is going to entice me to stay on the sidelines and not take sides.

First of all most people can't stand Bettman - he is a bully who knows next to nothing about hockey

And there it is.... more code.The people who employ him,the owners, love him and that's all that counts. He has made some moves that have not succeeded but on balance has made the owner's assets skyrocket in value since he has taken over.Why do you assume he knows nothing about hockey, more code for Jewish or dumb American?

BTW.. businessmen are not overpaid, they produce their own wealth.If governments want to give them handouts, well that is their prerogative.I beg to differ with your assessment that even if my premise that Quebec City will be blackballed is true, it isn't important to Quebecers.BTWA private team like the Canadiens has never really benefited from any government aid and in fact puts millions of $$ into the Quebec treasury each year. The team pays full pop in municipal taxes ($10 mil +) and charges sales tax on everything. The players they hire also pay a ton of taxes.

My my..why such defense of Mr.Bettman..its common knowledge that most Canadians can't stand the man. All you focus on is the fact that he is Jewish..once again you bring up the whole Jewish angle and then accuse me of being racist..what a total crock. Why are you and John Krug so sensitive about this..any criticism labelled against a Jewish person or Israeli actions is met with such stiff resistance. My comments about businessmen were not levelled at any particular ethnic group but businessman as a whole but you somehow twist this into an anti-semetic statement..shame on you.

Some businessman produce wealth for all the right reasons but many do not..many extort, exploit, manipulate, break the law or use lawyers to find every loophole in the book to conduct borderline illegal behaviour, exotrt money from taxpayers via the government, and on and on. I suppose you think Wall Street bankers are a bunch of rocket scientists when in fact most of them should be behind bars in jail.

To some people hockey in Quebec City is a big thing but too many its a non-issue. There has been no hockey in Quebec City for 15 years and the city has not imploded..life still goes on. Your smug little editorial is typical from someone who has spent their career in the corporate-centric world where money is everything. I am really sick and tired of corporate wags telling us how to run the country..they already have far too much influence on our affairs and often at the detriment of the common man.

Adski - I understand your viewpoint..I can understand too why people want to punish Quebec but at the same time people like Bettman and a lot of "corporate" big shots are as much or more a part of the problem in this world as our the seperatist movement.

"at the same time people like Bettman and a lot of "corporate" big shots are as much or more a part of the problem"

They are a problem, but not one that nullifies the other problem. These problems are not mutually exclusive, they are concurrent. Robber barons of today are pests, but so are the masses infected with crazed ideologies. So I would not use any "buts" in the sentence.

They are a problem, but not one that nullifies the other problem. These problems are not mutually exclusive, they are concurrent. Robber barons of today are pests, but so are the masses infected with crazed ideologies.

No arguments there. As I said not sure who is worse but I am leaning towards the corporate world. The corporate world in the end often has no moral compass..its just about profits at any cost. Hence the ridiculously overpaid ceos, the exploitation of poor people around the world, the incredible environmental damage by corporations especially in poor loosely regulated countries, the lies and fraud to boost stock prices, the lobbying of governments to maximize again profits to the detrminent of the common man, and on and on and on. So Mr.Editor please spare me your ra-ra corporate world crap..the corporate world has no credibility in my books anymore. The mainstream media is also effectively owned by large corporations which means we are lied to on a continual basis..thank goodness for alternative media sources.

Today we find ourselves in the extraordinary situation where the separatist government of Pauline Marois takes with one hand, twenty billion dollars a year from Ottawa, while giving the finger to Canadians with the other.

Total federal transfers (including but not limited to the 7 or so equalization billions) total around 20 billions, but it is still her avowed strategy to seek contention with the federal in order to promote separatism.

Of course a separatist would argue that it's not like the 20 billions are a handout - Quebec pays its taxes, even if it gets more than it pays in, and therefore it should receive the benefit from those taxes so long as they are forced to remain within Canada.

1. Today we find ourselves in the extraordinary situation...There is nothing extraordinary with this situation today. It has been going on for years.

2. ...takes with one hand, twenty billion dollars a year from Ottawa...No it does not. It takes 8 billion dollars. The 20G$ is offset with the money Ottawa takes.

3. ...while giving the finger to Canadians with the other.With regards to other Canadians apart from the Federal government, I do not see it behaves any differently with any other Quebec governments, thus I need a clarification or example of this statement.

"2. ...takes with one hand, twenty billion dollars a year from Ottawa...No it does not. It takes 8 billion dollars. The 20G$ is offset with the money Ottawa takes."

Yes, actually it does. The $20B is the difference between what Ottawa sends to Quebec and what it receives from here. And that is Ottawa sending $20B more to Quebec than receiving and definitely not the other way around.

FROM EDEDITOR, You must be careful what you say about Jews. Someone is always waiting to brand you anti=semite. Tony Kodaks, Mr Sauga and Complicated have tried to make me a racist. It doesn't bother me because I have love in my heart for all people including them. When you speak about Corporations keep in mind the founders of the same built this city. Never mind the thousands of small businesses, it was the giants who built this city .Men like James McGill and Sir Hugh Allen who gave great gifts such as Hospitals and Universities as well as paying tremendous taxes which helped build the roads and the city superstructure.It would be worth a days blog to remember those that have done great things and moved on leaving them for us to enjoy.Iff we compared what English have built compared to Francopones it would give a good idea who our benfactgors were.The Jews were great employers.Almost a hundred thousand sewing machines in Montreal employed men and women for a century. Complicated gets an idea in his head and convinces himself that it's absolute. Then he tries to sell it to every one even if they all tell him he's wrong.

.I learned as a young Scoutmaster when my Group Committee voted against me at a meeting, You can't go through life saying, "I'm right, it's the rest of the world that's wrong.". Cpnplicated has yet to learn this Incidentaly to Anonymous whoever you are,. burning and stomping Quebec flags is entirely the wrong thing. It would fan the flames of resentment against the English. Ed

ED - I would say there are a heck of a lot more racist/borderline racist comments in this blog against francophones than any other group. What keeps surprising me is the incredible sensitivity on this blog to any criticism directly or innocently towards Israel and Jews in general. Effectively its open season on racist comments against one group and then zero tolerance towards any criticism of another certain group - hmmmm..wonder why that would be..

Corporations built a lot of great things but often on the backs of a lot of average to dirt poor people so lets not givem them too much credit. The ipod is a great invention but the workers at Foxconn are treated like slaves..how can a company as profitable as Apple treat there workers so poorly..it blows me away the level of greed that infests so many large corporations. Too much of the profits from these corporations flows to a select few at the top..the average ceo now makes hundreds of times the salary of its average worked which is totally obscene. Back in the 1970s the ratio was about 40 to 1 and everything functioned quite well..now the greed levels of executives is outrageous and on top of it these people are the ones calling the shots with our governments.

And again ED another racist comment..implying that only the english built anything of value in this city..amazing that the editor never condemns statements like this. I wonder how many poor french workers slaved away building a lot of these beautiful buildings for their english masters. However a criticism of the universally disliked Bettman unleashes a tirade about how I am writing in code and am anti-semetic. I think we now all know the ethnic background of the editor.

Dont worry ED I have been wrong on many occasions as have most other people. But I have learned over the years to be a lot more critical of what I hear and see particularily from the mainstream media. I have also learned that blogs like this typically serve as a venting platform for people with the same biased way of thinking..there are a few people here who are balanced and fair but most are here have an incredibly biased way of looking at the situation in Quebec..essentially its english all good and french all bad.

Sorry, Complicated, but I can't agree. Yes, there are a few commentators on this blog who exhibit the kind of bias you're talking about. There a handful of individuals who would maintain that pea soup is the Devil's chowder and that every lawn in Quebec harbors a cross that's perpetually aflame. There are also those, including a pitifully self-loathing Ontarian, who insist that each and every Anglo can barely get out their obligatory Quebec bashing for all the half-chewed donuts packed in their blokish cheeks. However most of the regulars' attitudes are, to borrow your own moniker, rather more complicated; I don't get the sense that their opinions are as easily categorized as you'd have us believe. Take for example the most significant writer of the lot of us, The Editor, whose fair-minded comments regarding Francophone Quebecers' tribulations have received surprised but favorable remarks from francophones of different backgrounds such as Yannick and Michel Patrice.

As for those who put Bettman down as a "New York lawyer", (and I say this as a goy who's utterly indifferent to hockey): Surely this is a coded anti-Semitic slur? Those good ol' boys, Canuck hockey fans - the sort of guys who vociferously laud Don Cherry's unfailing ability to "tell it like it is" - are ever-ready to denounce their bête noire with this characterization. Surely if red-blooded hockey fans wanted to put the guy down for his profession and wealth and smarminess, it would be sufficient to simply spit out the word "lawyer" tout court. It's perhaps the least popular profession in the world, and "First thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers" is one of Shakespeare's most quoted lines for a reason. Alas, it's the epithet "New York" which is always uttered with such a shudder, and you can bet it's not because Bettman is suspected of being a Rangers fan. Were he to be a Moose Jaw-born lawyer with the surname Patterson, do you really believe his name would be reviled so virulently in coffee shops and sports bars throughout the land?

I think the Editor is very fair-minded. In fact he often gets criticized by his own supporters when he says anything about the fact that it's not wrong to protect Quebec's culture or criticizes Harper's undermining of the OLA and that sort of thing.

Another Bettman sympathizer..amazing..I think thats three now..which is about three more than I have ever met in my life. I really resent the implication that anybody who criticizes Bettman is anti-semetic..what a total load of bs. The reality is that Bettman is an a-hole and thats why 98 percent of Canadians cant stand the guy. He knows nothing about hockey..he is a high priced lawyer from New York who only cares about one thing..money. He could care less about the game and Canada..his relentless expansion plans to places like Columbus, Nashville and Florida have been a disaster. His relations with the players are a disaster but for some reason the owners like the guy which tells me a lot about the character of the owners. Oh and the fact that he is a lawyer does not help..a profession that deserves the crticism it gets.

The editors pieces are far from fair-minded. Its clear that the editor goes out of his way to find articles and subjects that make Quebec and Quebecois in general look stupid, intolerant, hateful and backwards. He will never show an article that has anything positive to say about Quebec or that has anything negative to say about the anglophone community in Quebec or in the rest of Canada. Yes there is some truth at times to his editorials..some are better than others but there is a clear slant and bias. Its clear the editor has an agenda..to paint francophone society in general as bad and anglophone society as good. I see it pretty well as the opposite of vigile.net.

At least we have someone willing to take on the likes of vigile here and I thank the editor for his efforts. Without this blog we have very few outlets of response to the ongoing attacks we receive from the separatists. We don't need you running this blog down complicated: go to vigile and do that. I'm pretty sick of you excusing this racist, bigoted society to all that read this blog and tired of you blaming everyone but the guilty ones that rob us of our rights and freedoms to live in the language and cultures that we chose which is English and Canadian values. Underneath all of your comments on this site, you come off as a separatist and I don't care that you try to portray yourself as anything but. It all shows through.

Cutie - I am as much a seperatist as you are..the god honest truth. When I hear you make statements like that then I know how brainwashed you are. Anybody who dares criticize any anglo or quebec anglo on this site is equated to a seperatist in your eyes which is totally ridiculous. Do you really think I want to live in a seperate Quebec run by the PQ..you have got to be kidding me. But do I agree ad verbatum with a lot of the anti-french sentiment on this site..no..its unfair and incredibly biased. Do I accept that the anglophones have as much responsibility for the mess we are in..yes I do?? You choose to place all the blame on the francophone side which is ridiculous. I said this site has the opposite side of the fence as vigile..both sites are run by extremists but from the opposite side of the spectrum. ED comes on here day after day telling us how much better english workers are and how much better english companies were and so on..nobody says anything. James Wolfe posts links to racist videos that are effectively quebec-bashing to the extreme. The editor only selects articles that make the francophone quebec society look horrible..we almost never see any positive articles in this regard..we never see any articles about all the scandals in english canada. The editor writes about how well harper is handling marois but of course does not mention all the crap going on in his own pmo office. If you only went to this site you would leave with an incredibly negative view of quebecois society. So its no better than lets say Fox News which is incredibly biased to the right or Sun News..these organizations are so biased its almost laughable. And then like minded people come on here and say that the editor is fair-minded..of course he reflects the views of most readers of this blog but it doesn't make it correct or truthful.

You may see it that way but, as you and I have commented before, I've been here during the last 60 some years and watched all the battle from the get-go to which you have not been privy so your view point is rather tainted whether you see it or not. I have watched this society go from the English dominance to the extreme French dominance at a slow pace at first and now at lightening speed. At first, the anglophone community was sympathetic with the French wanting more exposure to the high paying jobs and to a better lifestyle because they had every right to these things as we did. No one disputed that that I can remember. It was after all understandable. Then the pendulum swung too much the other way and things got out of hand with demands that no one could possibly meet from all of Canada and which all of a sudden the whole anglophone community in quebec was blamed for a generation of what the francophone community saw as collective disrespect from our community which was not at all true. I know no one with enough power or influence to do anyone any harm and all of a sudden I'm linked to a whole bunch of people that ran businesses or the province 50 years. It's ridiculous to say the least, that all of a sudden, I can no longer acquire services or products in my language because of a some person that ran a company that didn't hire francophones 50 years ago. The majority of quebecers may be francophones but francophone separatists are holding a grudge that should have been forgotten 40 years ago instead of still living in the past. Stop making excuses for these people that are holding the whole country of Canada hostage with their outrageous demands and discriminatory laws that require bilingualism everywhere but the one province where it should be mandatory in order to live in North America. Old grudges are holding us back from progression and must be stopped. If they want one more damn referendum, let them call one and get it to hell over with. At that time partition can take place if the population want it and then they can have their stupid backward country. I no longer care as long as they understand that it's the last referendum and that they will not have the same territory they now claim as theirs. Let them have a country as far as I'm concerned; I've lived most of my life under this cloud and now I want out from under and to go on with something else. There are other things I would rather be doing with what's left of my life and this would be the answer out for a lot of us that are sick to death of the never ending threat these people pose to our way or life and our right to live as we wish.

Every blog ever has its own point of view; that’s the whole reason why blogs exist in the first place. They’re not supposed to be CNN or BBC World service. This one exists to discuss things regarding the anglophone point of view regarding current events in Quebec that are seldom discussed elsewhere, not what goes on elsewhere. Nothing wrong with that.

Cutie - You make some good points. I do sense that the pendulum has indeed swung from one extreme to another. Its true that Quebecs demands are often unreasonable and they are quite ungrateful for the massive transfer of money from the rest of Canada into this province. I guess my issue is that we need more moderates on both sides..anglo or franco-extremist views are not going to get us anywhere but just provoke more anger from the other side. Hence the suggestion of partition is not constructive..no francophone is going to quietly accept that. You will just be helping out the seperatists with talk like that.

And yes perhaps many anglophones now are paying for the sins of their forefathers which is not fair. On the other hand there are many anglophones..particularily the older generation that still carry a certain arrogance with respect to the whole language issue which doesnt help.

Unfortunately many blogs tend to have incredibly biased views..unbalanced..they are the viewpoints of one person which can often be radically skewed. I understand that there needs to be a blog for the anglophone view but if it ends up being a mouthpiece for extremists then it will have little useful impact in the end.

The pendulum hasn’t just “swung from one extreme to the other”; it has swung far, far more in its current direction that it had ever swung in the other direction in the first place. Rather than demonstrating leadership by finding a happy medium, this exemplifies a whole host of negative attributes and reflects poorly on Quebec.

Also, there’s no requirement to reply to every stupid comment that the Editor allows to be posted on his blog. In fact, it’s generally desirable NOT to reply to stupid comments.

You guys keep throwing that "Canada wants Quebec to separate". I understand how repeating the same thing to one another might make it less absurd over time, but there is no factual basis for this statement.

The polls only state that the ROC is indifferent about Quebec separatism and unwilling to offer them incentives to stay, with a (vocal) minority who actively want it to leave.

If the indifferent were counted as "might as well keep QC", then the decision might be close in a popular referendum. But if only the ones who bothered to vote were counted, it wouldn't be pretty for Quebec.

This is based on my anecdotal experience in the RoC, which is not expansive I admit. From my experience though, indifference is the best Quebec gets over there. On the other side of the scale, there are varying levels of hostility.

Once again, Quebec governments worked hard for this. In trying to even the scores and reaffirm notational pride, they pushed too hard and lost their way.

I'll also inform you that if you pick up any book on Canadian history, the Anglo-Canadians have complained about French Power, being ruled by the French race, etc... ever since there have been Anglos and Francos in Canada.

Hostility towards Quebec is by no means something that started in the 1960's, even if before it was due to straight out racism and it is now arguably more legitimate.

After all a ROCanadian can truthfully say that English Canada had seen the error of their ways and went half way to try and accomodate French Canadians through the Flag, National Anthem, Official Languages Act, bilingualism in the federal service before that, the Bi&Bi commission, etc... only to be spat upon by contemporary separatist governments.

The PQ strategy is designed to alienate the citizens of ROC. I imagine the federalist love-in from the last referendum persuaded the PQ to ratchet up efforts to turn off Canadians at every turn so as to ensure that no similar movement sprouts up at the next referendum.The constant whining about QC being ripped off by Canada (ludicrous, of course)serves to convince franco Quebecois that it's the truth while simultaneously irritating Canadian taxpayers. It's a Win/Win for the PQ.

It's a myopic strategy to be sure as any eventual independant QC will have a history going back décades of arrogant complaining and rejection of all the Canadian taxpayers who funnelled money to it. None of this is that important to the PQ as the only focus is gaining independance.

I would agree that average Canadians have had their fill of QC(especially when the PQ is in power)and I'd be shocked to see any kind of significant, non political party organized, federalist rally at a future referendum. Given the way the sovereignist side has played things over the last 40 yrs, I have no doubt most Canadians will NOT be wishing the independant Republique well and will actively avoid all things QC when it comes to business/travel/consumer products etc... It's a natural human reaction, especially after 40+ years of constant belly-aching from QC. As a QCer, I want QC to stay in Canada, but if it ever séparâtes, I'll be outta here and wishing QC nothing but the worst in their misguided xenophobic deluded adventure.

Knowing Bettman, he will probably continue his failed Southern USA expansion, again. Anyway, with Bettman, we will probably see the Hawaii Pineapple in 2020. Bettman will probably keep on using league revenues to keep the Coyotes afloat. This guy will not quit.

"Pauline Marois came out kicking in defence of the Quebec Soccer Federation's refusal to let turban-wearing kids play the sport"http://www.tsn.ca/montreal/story/?id=425189

I never thought I would say this but I have to agree with ma Tante Pauline.This is not racist. It's about our north american traditions.Any of you go and emigrate to India, Pakistan, Bengladesh or Sri Lanka.Take all your customs, traditions, your alcohol, the way you dress, your bikinis, etc and fling it all out while you are living there.We'll see how long you'll last before severe harm - or death come to you.

That being said, I have to admit that I partly agree with you: people chose to come to our Country, they should somewhat adopt/accept our values. Apparatchik made a very good point on the last post however: it's very subjective. Who gets to decide what's acceptable and what isn't?

Either way, in this case we're talking about kids, so the whole issue is ridiculous. Let them play and get over it already.

And by the way, it's not about "traditions" for the PQ. It's about people being different.

Un gars said: "I never thought I would say this but I have to agree with ma Tante Pauline.This is not racist. It's about our north american traditions.Any of you go and emigrate to India, Pakistan, Bengladesh or Sri Lanka.Take all your customs, traditions, your alcohol, the way you dress, your bikinis, etc and fling it all out while you are living there.We'll see how long you'll last before severe harm - or death come to you."No, it's racist. You're saying Quebec should emulate third world failed states in the way it treats some members of society. I thought that, at least in recent decades, "north american tradition" was to try to rise above that crap. You're a racist. Deal with it.

Pauline did the political math and has come down firmly in the camp filled with the racists, bigots and un-educated, in other words, the traditional PQ base. Once FIFA rules in favour of children playing soccer with turbans, which it will, what will her position be? What will be their excuse? This news is making waves in India, a market of a Billion people, and it makes Quebec look like a bunch of backwater hicks. How many C-Series jets will Bombardier sell there now? Way to go Pauline, you've managed to insult a whole sub-continent while making us look like unsophisticated fools. How low can you go?

So what?quebec, well.... the PQ lovers have always wanted an ethnically pure quebec. As in pure laine 100% good ol quebecois such as Riendeau, Tremblay or Bellavance. No Ngyen, no Mahammad, etc.And make it french.So in order to achieve that, the future Democratic People's Republic of quebekistan evolves in a new North Korea type country or in a 1980 style Albania, well it is a small price to pay.

"Once FIFA rules in favour of children playing soccer with turbans, which it will, what will her position be?"

don't you read the news? they already said that when fifa updates its rulebook they will be glad to comply. i'd be surprised if fifa accepts turbans in a sport that is played with the head. they'll probably allow sikhs to play with a stretched and smooth cap. something that won't have the ball rebound randomly. this should be acceptable to all, as it won't cause odd or unfair situations and sikhs can still tuck in their long hair. don't you agree lord dorchester?

"How many C-Series jets will Bombardier sell there now?"

a shitload, mate. it's the best airplane around. they won't miss it for a few sikhs that won't let their kids play without a turban.

@taliban dudent""How many C-Series jets will Bombardier sell there now?"

a shitload, mate. it's the best airplane around"

Hmmm you've never heard of Embraer, correct?http://www.embraer.com/en-US/Pages/Home.aspxhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EmbraerThey may only be the world's #6 manufacturer to Bombardier's #3, but been busy closing that gap in the past 10 years. Unfortunately some bad rap could hurt Bombardier sales.

I've covered so much of what has led PQnet to create the horrid reality you're now living in the year 2032, but I really need you to listen carefully to this recording because this is the point where the separatists start gaining traction and coming closer to setting off Judgment Day.

As I record this, the T-5000 Culturminator known as "Bernard Drainville" has initiated step two of his "Charte des valeurs Québécoise."

The Quebec soccer league banned headwear for Sikhs and as a result were banned from being a part of the Canadian Soccer Federation.

This has armed PQnet with the resources it needs to build a powerful new line of drones that you know today as Xenodrones.

When you travel back in time, you'll find the fear factory where the Xenodrones are being manufactured in the far-flung nether region of Saguenay.

John, I can't warn you enough how dangerous this mission will be.

Unlike the other drones in the SepaClone army, the XenoDrones are as difficult to detect as the T-1000 who killed your father. Another reason to be cautious is that the XenoDrones are not powered by gas, electricity or any form of battery - these drones are the first of their kind to be powered by fear.

I know how crazy this must sound, but Bock-Côté & Dutrizac laboratories have been far at work and have devised a way to convert fear into power. John, your artillery of common sense, logic, human decency will have no effect on the XenoDrones.

This is the turning point, John. Back in 2006, PQnet almost succeeded in it's quest by using a patsie faction known as the ADQ. The Hérouxville Fear Factory was quickly destroyed by complete and total lack of interest.

However, PQnet discovered the fateful formula that led to Judgment Day.

John, just remember that when you go back, it's not enough to destroy the Fear Factories in Saguenay - you MUST destroy the Isolationism Generators at the following addresses:

you advocate the destruction of the only independant daily in montreal le devoir, french cbc and the body that's responsible for monitoring the state of french as a living language in north america.

therefore you are a cultural terrorist and the reason why these institutions are essential. and if you represent a widespread opinion current in the roc, well you, along with true montrealer, are also a great reason for quebec to secede.

More of the bigotry that pervades quebec. I'm glad this guy has won his case. Hopefully this will open up more eyes to the type of society we are creating in this province.http://www.montrealgazette.com/index.html

If I understand your post correctly, there are somekind of boy's clubs who make things happen (or not) whose members are not motivated by business and financial results alone, but by some kind of fidelity to the english speaking society and by some kid of fidelity to their own.

Could this explain in part why Montreal financial trust was against the creation and the financing of Hydro-Québec?

Could this explain in part why the part of the quebeckers's assets managed by the banks of Bay Street that is reinvested in Québec is abnormaly small?

Could this explain in part why the Montréal stock exchange was closed?

Could this explain in part the glass ceiling that francophones experienced in many industries before the Quiet Revolution?

Just a few naive questions...

You say : "Plain and simple, the majority of Canadians dislike or hate Quebec separatists, who are seen as despicable, disloyal, diabolical and dishonest."

For crying out loud, how many times do we have to repeat the same thing over and over again, ''nous devrions plutôt être indépendants plutôt que nous laisser diriger par des gens qui, se foutent bien de nous''. Do you ever stop to wonder why this might be happening? Please go back to R.S's quote from 8:01AM today, specifically: ''They do everything possible to antagonize everybody else and then they feign shock and horror when everyone reacts precisely as expected.''

Let's suppose for the sake of the discussion that this happened because we have been genuine assholes from the start and that canadians have every right to hate the despicable, disloyal, diabolical and dishonest bastards that we are.

Still, is it in our interest to be lead by people "qui se foutent (right or wrongfuly...) de nous?" Perhaps, they have every right to hate us and perhaps justice would be that we would just drop dead. But, somehow, I don't see much appeal in droping dead...

What should we do then? Become good canadians? Would Canada just forget all that we did and we would just fall in each other's arm? Haven't we crossed the line of no return decades ago?...

I have had the right to vote for the last two decades only, I mist the first centuries of our history. I have this feeling that we crossed the line of no return decades ago, long before I had the right to vote. So don't blame me personnaly. But here I am today looking at the situation resulting from a cascade of historical events (in which, if you like, we were the bad guys...) and I think that it is not in our interest to be lead by people "qui se foutent de nous".

P.S. "...and then they feign shock and horror..." You should watch the video, no feigned shock or horror. Just a calm and lucid man, very cool tempered.

"Would Canada just forget all that we did and we would just fall in each other's arm?"

We would not fall into each others arms. There is no need for this and it would be fake and over the top anyways.

Simple getting along will suffice. Somewhere between the two extremes of the utopian goal of "social cohesion" on one end and the politically engineered hostility towards those who cannot be converted on the other, there is a middle ground: simple getting along. Which is more than enough.

"Haven't we crossed the line of no return decades ago?"

There are no points of no return. There are points of a long climb back to some middle ground, but not of no return.

"and I think that it is not in our interest to be lead by people "qui se foutent de nous"."

I doubt that it's too late, myself. There is still widespread, if lukewarm, support for our bicultural and bilingual federal state, and most of those who are against it do so because they are angry that Quebec isn't meeting Canada half-way.

And I hope that the ROC is aware that many of us in quebec do not feel the same way as the separatists. This is the message we must get out to ROC to prevent even more isolation of this province. I understand the hate that they promote and make us all look bad but they are doing this again only to get rid of the anglophones and allophones that reside here. The turban fiasco is just another example of setting quebec apart from the ROC. Already the Quebec Soccer Association are admitting that perhaps this decision was made too quickly. I hope they change the ruling and make Miss Piggy look bad again on the political stage. The more blunders she makes, the more the movement stands out for what it is. Uncooperative, uncompromising, selfish and appealing to only the lowest denominator of all of quebec society. Let mob rule is the separatist logic - very sad for those of us that don't live our lives to put other people down because of race, religion and language.

I am glad you brought your points up about the little boys club the editor is talking about. I couldn't quite put my finger on it but there was something in the tone of this latest editotial that struck me as incredibly arrogant and disturbing. You hit the nail on the head..its exactly this anglo boys club that ruled Montreal for decades before the 1970s and that finally triggered the revolt by francophone society. They were sick and tired of having this anglo club treating them like second class citizens and calling all the shots. They were willing to take a big econoomic hit rather than continue to bow down to this anglo arrogance. Hence the editor is now throwing this in everyones face again concerning the Nordiques..does the editor really think francophones will be scared by his words after all that has happened in the past 50 years? If anything it will only anger them..I am pretty sure they will be more than willing to give up on the Nordiques rather than grovel to a group of arrogant, overpaid and overglorified ceos from New York.

Baloney - money and power is what runs this province - check out the Charbonneau Commission - this isn't about anglo or franco anymore - it's greed and selfishness on the part of all of them. And the separatists are always angry so who cares any more.

You are bang on..its all about money and power. The editor is clearly stating that the money and power of the NHL boys club will prevent the Nordiques from getting a team. In the past..before the 1970s..it was the money and power of the minority anglo community that pretty well called the shots here in Quebec. Francophones got fed up with this and revolted and we are all still paying the price for that.

Its money and power of large corporations that effectively run many supposed democratic governments around the world including Canada and the USA. Its a huge problem because the average person like you and me have no real say in the end..the government reponds first to the ceos of major corporations then we might get a few crumbs. Thats how the world works and its a horrible system. Look at the donations to both the Republicans and Democrats from large Wall street banks..they are equally large..both parties get a fortune from these banks. Thats why not one wall street banker is in jail..thats why hank paulson lied to everyone and extorted 800 billion dollars from us taxpayers to bail out incompetent bankers who should have been left to fail. Money and power runs everything cutie..

"And I hope that the ROC is aware that many of us in quebec do not feel the same way as the separatists."

It's irrelevant from Ottawa's standpoint. We don't run this province and when QC hurts Canada, it does it with us or without us.

"There is still widespread, if lukewarm, support for our bicultural and bilingual federal state"

Ask those RoC anglos who support a "bilingual and bicultural" state a question in French. You will draw a blank. They have no interest in bilingualism, they are those who are (still) afraid Quebec will break up their country so they're being nice, in contrast to those who are not afraid so they don't fake being nice, because they either called the bluff, or they realized that the country's end is better than living for the rest of your existence with a gun put to your head. I support the latter group.

Now reverse it and ask why I mind Quebec uni-lingalism if I support Canada's right to uni-lingalism. I don't mind Quebec uni-lingalism at all and I support Quebeckers' right to it on one condition: that it doesn't bother them. But it does. Quebeckers do not want to be uni-lingual, those who are are not happy. The way out of this malaise is to become bilingual then, not to wage war of attrition against the uni-linguals in the rest of the country when they are not the ones bothered by it.

No see, having pend quite a few years in the ROC, I can tell you that the ones who support bilingualism do so at an institutional rather than personal level, but not out of fear that Quebec might separate. The ones who make the connection are usually the angry ones who are against the OLA and for Quebec leaving, or getting "put it its place" and whatnot.

Many ROCanadians have a romantic notion that the nation's bilingualism makes Canada more progressive than the US and shows that we are open towards minorities and such. At least that has been my interpretation.

Of course this romantic notion of the OLA is usually supported so long as the individual does not need to be bilingual themselves - so long as its someone else making the efforts. Try and make your job bilingual and they might change their tune entirely.

"against the OLA and for Quebec leaving, or getting "put it its place" and whatnot."

I am against the OLA on a very simple principle: the people of the RoC rejected official bilingualism. Policy wonks in Ottawa tried it, which is fine, it's their job to try to engineer a perfect society according to some blueprint on the wall of some ministry. But the graft didn't take, so now is the time to move on.

I am against those who want to put Quebec in its place. I am with those who just want to forget about Quebec, and forget the centrally-enforced bilingualism (as opposed to spontaneous one, like Hindi-English in Mississauga, Cantonese-English in Vancouver, Ukrainian-English in AB, French-English in NB, etc..). Even if it means breaking up this country.

It is from Marc V. Levine's The Reconquest of Montreal. You can read parts of it here if interested : http://books.google.ca/books?id=1CwhnBqgSpwC&pg=PR4&lpg=PP1&dq=the+reconquest+of+montreal&hl=fr

So there were boys's clubs that made things happen or not. This being said, I don't blame the Québec english community for having used its financial power to influence things. They were not numerous enough to influence the vote, so they used another mean that was available to them.

We did not have the financial power but we had the number, so we used the powers of the state, something that we could do because we had the number to run the democratic show.

Each group has its strenghts and weakninesses and acts accordingly.

This being said, one have to know of the existence of those boys's clubs and have to see them for what they were to have a better understanding of history. And then one sees that our business struggle was not due only to the "poor work ethic of catholics" (something that Mr. Ed could lecture you about for hours...)

What centrally-enforced bilingualism, adski? Federal services have to be able to deal with the 25% of francophones in this country. It doesn't mean that individual people have to be bilingual coast to coast.

"The bilingualisation of the federal service has been a great success."

From the perspective of some individuals maybe. From the perspective of state policy, no. Quebec is still as separatist as ever, as demanding as ever, as strident as ever.

From the point of view of the Canadian state, the OLA did not meet the major objective of fostering better relations with Quebec, and it cost the Canadian state lots of money. From that perspective it's a failure which should serve as a lesson and a deterrent from any such "ideas" in the future.

I don't understand Michele - Canada is not a difficult country to be a part of - what do you hate so much about it? So the federal government sometimes makes decisions that quebecers don't like - some Canadians also don't like some of the decisions of the federal government but it's beyond me that you think a country, any country, can make the best decisions based just on what people want - the whole idea is preposterous in that all people would desire to live without working, would vote to have free babysitters so they could go out to dinner, have a doctor on call free of change anytime, and the ideas are endless. We live in a world that is controlled by economics and all the above ideas, be they lovely or not, are not practical, and there is not enough money in the world to support these things. Do you think, if you get your own country, that the various levels of government that will exist in quebec will only have to worry just about quebec? You do realize that this is not true don't you? You are still in the middle of Canada and the water and the air you breath will still be shared with the rest of the country so you will not be allowed to make decisions just on your own because of the physical location of quebec. This has entered your mind hasn't it? If you were to do something that the ROC or the Americans disagree with, it would be stopped quickly - you see that don't you? For instance, drilling in the St. Lawrence affects every country that has a great lake because they are conjoined. Do you think you would be allowed to drill at will if the ROC and/or America says no? You must think of these things because they are very real. Quebec will never be "independent" the way you think it will. Not even mentioning partition as yet but the Natives have a right to their land and they will claim it whether quebec likes it or not. Canada has tried to accommodate quebec in thousands of ways but nothing is ever good enough. Would anything ever be good enough?

"Canada is not a difficult country to be a part of - what do you hate so much about it?"

His animosity is grounded in humiliations of the past and the lack of "recognition" or "respect" of the present, noting that he would not be able to define what he considers respect because it is a Don Quixotian concept. Note that his kind of animosity is not fixable by policy, and is therefore here to stay. No OLA will fix it, and neither will your pleas. It will not be cured by Quebec's separation either. The only thing that seems to alleviate slightly is dragging others down.

The only potential (and final) cures are so extreme that they are impossible: one is a time machine back to the 1700s and forcing the war France's way, the other is having Quebeckers unfairly confined to a cold corner of the continent proceed to reconquer the rest of the continent that is rightfully theirs. Anything short of these two will not satisfy his proud nationalist ego nor fulfill his grand ambitions.

Anglo/allo animosity in Quebec, on the other hand, is mostly in response to concrete policies of the QC government. It's more concrete than neurotic.

Have to agree with you adski but Michele seems to have a head on his shoulders and, even if he is a separatist, perhaps some "middle ground" could be reached if he stopped to think about all the problems they are bringing down on themselves for absolutely no good reason. Trying to bring these people into the present seems to be the biggest problem of all and it shouldn't be, to me anyway, because we all have children and grandchildren that are counting on us to do what's best for their future. Not ours so much, but theirs. People like Michele that are bilingual and intelligent, have the world by the tail and could do so many useful things to further their lives and the lives of their children if they would just put the damn past behind them and think to the future. I guess that's what I'm trying to do by speaking with him - just to move this stalemate past the finish line and look to the great future they, and others like them have in a great country that supports their right to their language and culture. I'm probably wasting my time but it's worth a shot. I so envy these people; they have no idea how lucky they are!

From the perspective of some individuals maybe. From the perspective of state policy, no. Quebec is still as separatist as ever, as demanding as ever, as strident as ever.

From the point of view of the Canadian state, the OLA did not meet the major objective of fostering better relations with Quebec, and it cost the Canadian state lots of money. From that perspective it's a failure which should serve as a lesson and a deterrent from any such "ideas" in the future.

Quebec would be independent had the OLA not passed. The fact that the two referendas failed and support for independence is so low is the ongoing success of the OLA.

It might have been for the better, considering the present situation. 2013: the rulers: PQ hardliners, on the agenda: bill 14, major objective: stirring up hostilities with the federal government. All with the OLA looming large in the background.

"The fact that the two referendas failed and support for independence is so low is the ongoing success of the OLA"

Support for independence is not so low if you include those whose stance is conditional federalism. Once you put those potential separatists on the separatist side, you have similar support for separation as before.

The OLA might have muted the overtly separatist spirit, but it activated a demand-driven conditional federalism. I don't think one is better than the other.

Suit yourself. As I noted before to Tony Kondaks, we all have our dealbreakers that define whether or not we can identify/accept our State. Mine is the OLA. The day I believe Canadians are against it, is the day I become both a Quebecer and a separatist. I guess that makes me a conditional federalist as well, even though I've never been an inhabitant of Quebec.

We need people like you to admit to themselves that they are in fact separatists. By being a conditional federalist, you legitimize the separatist option but prevent it from winning politically, thus making this circus go on forever.

But I am not a separatist. I grew up in a Canada that was bilingual and multicultural, and it is part of my identity. You're the one saying Canadians are against it, that's not what people answer to the pollster when asked.

By saying it should go, you are the one legitimizing the separatist movement - you are telling all of the "conditional federalists" that the separatists are right, they must have their own country in order to retain French services in this country, because the Federal is providing them not because it's the right thing to do but because it is expedient to do so until the demographics of Quebec change enough to permit its safe removal.

Sadly Michele, if I do not receive a response to my above posts, I will have to assume you separatists are not interested in any "middle ground" scenario, which I always knew in my heart anyway. Nothing any Canadian or any Canadian leader offers is of any interest to you people, so why not just say so? Why keep asking for more and more from Canada when there is really nothing that will satisfy you except independence? Most of us that reside here in quebec know that, but you keep giving false hope to the ROC that there is a solution and an end to this drama that you continuously create to keep your hands at the throats of all Canadians. Refuse transfer payments and keep braking the Canadian laws to piss off the rest of Canada is a silly way to go about getting what you want. Just call another referendum already and take your chances with the rest of us. Just make it the final one, make it clear to all that it is the final one, say for another 50 years, and say you want no more handouts from the ROC and let's get on with it for Christ's sake instead of this death by a thousand knives that you people continually dole out with discriminatory laws and sneaky ethnic cleansing politics. What are you so afraid of? That you will not be able to achieve independence without cheating in some way? Follow Clarity Act Rules, make sure the question is clear and try to convince your fellow quebecers that independance is their best option. If you can do this and achieve like a 65% yes majority vote, you will have your socialist dream country totally controlled by an incompetent government like you have already except with more money under their control to pay their graft and corrupted government employees and private engineering companies. Wow - that is an goal we all strive for in this province. If you can't achieve this goal honestly, why don't you people wise up and start getting along with your neighbours, promote your language and culture instead of trying to make people learn it through legislation and accept the fact that your a well treated minority in North America and have the support for your language and culture from the other 25M or so people that want to see you succeed in life? What's wrong with that scenario?

Cutie, do you think separatist are interested in middle ground? Heck, some of them think that Labrador will join them in their independent Republic. Quebec separatist are not interested in any compromise with the Anglo, and have refused any attempt at partition to make everybody happy.

That's what I would like to see them admit Liam - all of them. Stop the pretense that there is something, someone, some mystical God that will make them ever see anything differently. If the charades stop, get the next damn referendum under way and stop the political manouevring of the province pretending that things will change if they get money, power, an army, God only knows what. Michele is the one asking "what middle ground" and I'm asking if there is really a "middle ground" or is this just another way of getting everything for nothing.

What a sad state of affairs for the poor Canadian province of Quebec. Poor Quebec you once were great, you could easily be great again if only your politicians would let you be so. Instead your politicians have made you into the Belgium of North America. Tragic!

Actually, Editor Micheal Illitch is Macedonian, not Greek. The Republic of Macedonia is a small country north of Greece. Easy to mistake.http://www.ilitchholdings.com/LeadershipTeam/MichaelIlitch.aspx"As a first-generation American of Macedonian heritage"

Here's Marie Malavoy complaining about the Quebec Soccer Federation's suspension by the Canadian Soccer Association. Note that she's talking about how certain kids could be excluded from the Canadian Summer Games in Sherbrooke, and how she feels that's unfair:

I hope that the CSA stands up to these militant separatists because this is just the first of many challenges that Miss Piggy will put on the ROC in the hopes of riling up the troops for another referendum. This province must be put in it's place if it is to remain a part of Canada. Either live under the same rules as the ROC or get to hell out of confederation. This is going to have to be put to rest if there is ever to be a resolution to this on-going rebellion by the separatists and to learn to live with our friends and neighbours again in peace. No more exceptions to the rules for this province. End it now!

And more on the turban ban from Piggy herself:fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2013/06/11/chris-selley-parti-quebecois-spins-soccer-turban-ban-into-more-fodder-for-sovereigntist-cause/How sad our province has once again become daily fodder for our intolerance.

The Marois government's huge unpopularity pretty much guarantees that she will do everything possible to extend this for as long as possible and milk this for all its worth in order to try to shore up the PQ’s intolerant base.

Meanwhile, it’s the kids who lose out. If the QSF remains suspended from the CSA, Team Quebec won’t be eligible to play at the Canada Games in Sherbrooke this summer, which in turn suits Marois’s desire to keep Quebec bubbled up and closed in upon itself.

Premier Marois may schedule election on christmas.http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Deal+reached+fixeddate+elections+Quebec/8514898/story.html"allowed flexibility in setting the election date in case it coincides with a religious holiday.""The PQ and CAQ argued back that advance voting usually handles situations of holidays. "Jeez, I hate advance voting. The locations that are open are a major inconvenience. Way to go to boost the province low participation rate, Marois.